VATICAN CITY, Aug 11 (AFP) - The Vatican reiterated its firm opposition Wednesday to human cloning after the British government gave a research team permission to use human cloning for medical research purposes.
"The Holy Father has always unequivocally condemned all forms of human cloning, even for therapeutic purposes," Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told AFP.
Navarro-Valls said the Vatican would make a detailed assessment on the British research once more details emerge of the research team's plans.
Pope John Paul II has vehemently opposed human cloning in speeches and official Vatican documents.
He said cloning for transplant purposes was morally unacceptable if it involves "the manipulation and destruction of human embryos", even when its proposed goal is good in itself.
"Science itself points to other forms of therapeutic intervention which would not involve cloning or the use of embryonic cells, but rather would make use of stem cells taken from adults," the head of the Roman Catholic Church told an international congress of transplant specialists in 2000.
"This is the direction that research must follow if it wishes to respect the dignity of each and every human being, even at an embryonic stage," the pope said.